Forests
I 1n thi issu :
Goodbye to Dean Brown
from the Dean
T
''
We've been
actively
engaged in
research on
water
resources
since the late
1950s."
2
Focus on Forestry
his issue of Focus on Forestry
features Pacific .Northwest forests
and water; specifically, the research
our faculty are doing to better understand
the relationships between our forests and
water resources, and particularly how our
water resources are affected by the practices we employ to manage our forests.
As a forest hydrologi st myself, I'm
proud of the leadership role played by our
faculty in this important area, and I'm
happy to report that it's not a new topic
for us. We've been actively and continuously engaged in research on water
resources since the late 1950s, when
College faculty began working on the
Alsea Basin Logging and Aquatic Resources Study. This study not only crossed
several disciplinary lines, but it was
highly cooperative, engaging scientists
and managers from the forest industry and
state and federal resource agencies. That
cooperative, interdisciplinary spirit
continues in the water-related research we
do today, which takes place all over the
state.
Results from the work being done by
College scientists provide the public,
resource managers, and policymakers
with sound, science-based info1mation.
We have many faculty serving on scientific teams at the Governor's request,
assisting in developing policies for
salmon restoration, riparian management
rules, and landslide evaluation. The
continuing demand for their expertise !n
the policy arena attests to our success m
meeting this important need.
I'd like to close this column on a
personal note. As many of you know, I
recently announced my plans to retire this
August. It's been a very great honor to
serve thi s outstanding College for 33
years, and as Dean for the past 10 years.
Our students, faculty, and staff are second
to none, and we enjoy incredible support
from alumni and friends. To all of you
who have made our College what it is
today, I extend my sincere appreciation.
I'm especially grateful for your unwavering support and your many kindnesses
shown to me in my deanship. I ask that
you provide the same support to my
successor.
~~
Dean
College of Forestry
Oregon State University
Winter 1999
College of
Vol. 12, No. 1
L-
4
t
·.
..:{"-
Contents
George W. Brown
Dean
LLJ
"
·~
· ·J,
Winter 1999
F ores try
-
;.~
\
..--~:~?.· ,'
...
.
.
.
'
.
'{,earning more all
.Jhe time. A gauging
station on Lookout
Creek in the
Andrews
Experimental
Forest.
Cover story
Fish need it, trees need it, we need it.
Sometimes it seems we get more than we
need. College scientists and their colleagues study the many roles of water in
the Northwest's natural and social
landscape.
13
Alumni profile
Peter Wakeland ' 95 joins Sen. Ron
Wyden in Washington, D.C.
14
Faculty profile
George Brown retires after 33 years with
the College of Forestry
18
Kudos to faculty and staff
A new intern at Focus
Lisa C. Mattes
Director of Development
Gail Wells
Editor
Sarah Hucka
Assistant Editor/Intern
College of Forestry
Oregon State University
154 Peavy Hall
Corvallis, OR 97331 -5704
541 -737-4241
wellsg@frl.orst.edu
www.cof.orst.edu/
Focus on Forestry is published three times
each year (Fall, Winter, Spring) by the College
of Forestry. Our goal is to keep Forestry
alumni and friends informed about the College
of Forestry and its many activities and
programs. We welcome letters, phone calls,
and e-mail comments from readers.
Any or all parts of this publication may be
reproduced with credit to the
College of Forestry
u
Oregon State University is an affirmative
action/equal opportunity employer and
complies with Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
Focus on Forestry
Winter 1999
3
WATER:
It covers a lot of territory
Water-related research is looking at
large landscapes over long periods
W
Taking the
measure of the
stream. Above,
Lookout Creek
flows down from
Lookout
Mountain in the
Andrews
Experimental
Forest. Opposite,
researchers on a
Forest Service
site in the mid1960s.
ater. It is everywhere in the
physical environment. Our
Earth's landforms owe their
shape in large part to the movement of
water, and water is the primary constituent of all living cells.
Water represents many powerful
forces, not least the power of nature,
manifested in sometimes-frightening
ways: floods that wash out biidges, and
landslides that crush homes.
Because water is vital to our lives,
people care about it. They worry about
having enough good water to support
human communities. They worry about
keeping watersheds in a suitable condition
for the fish and other wildlife that depend
on them for survival.
They also w01Ty about whether
managed forests can furnish both highquality water and healthy fish and wildlife
populations in our watersheds. For these
reasons, a lot of forestry research, at OSU
and elsewhere, is devoted to the role of
water in forests.
Connections
Scientists who study water-related
topics are increasingly interested in how
water relates to our broader environment-its landscape and ecological
connections. They want to better understand how water processes in forests
shape river channels and hillsides, how
4
Focus on Forestry
Winter 1999
they influence the growth of trees and
other plants, and how they affect the life
cycles of salmon and salamanders. They
want to know how these processes themselves shape, and are shaped by, the needs
and desires of human communities.
Like water itself, this research covers
a Jot of territory. More and more, it tends
to look at large landscapes over long
periods. Tools like geographic information systems, satellite imaging, and
powerful computers are helping to provide new ways to conduct large-scale
studies. And faithful measurements of
research plots over the years are yielding
ever-richer sets of data for scientists to
work with.
This research is shedding light on
such urgent questions as how well fish
can handle disruptions in their habitat
(answer: they have persisted in an environment of periodic natural catastrophes,
but there are Limits beyond which they
won' t thrive), and whether logging and
roadbuilding increase the likelihood of
landslides (probably, but not as much as
some people think).
It is helping citizens and Lawmakers
grapple with tough issues. How much do
forest practices influence flooding?
Sed iment? The amount of water in
streams? Careful research, says Paul
Adams, helps people probe the simplistic
conclusions, the plausible explanations
''
The public
) .has the
misconception that
we're still in
the Dark
Ages. In fact,
we've
learned a
lot."
- Paul Adams
u
that are sometimes wrong or at least
misleading.
"Of all the important messages that
the forestry profession needs to get across
to the public," says Adams, a Forest
Engineering professor and Extension
watershed specialist, "the most important
is the two simple words, 'It depends. ' So
often the media
repeats broad
generali zations ,
like 'clearcutting
causes erosion
which harms fish
habitat.' Those who
know the research
know there are
many qualifications
to this, and that in
many instances the
statement is
wrong. "
Adams recently reviewed
more than 100
papers and reports
on the effects of
timber harvesting
on water quantity
and quality. Hi s
conclusion: the
research says the
effects are sometimes positive,
sometimes negative, sometimes mixed, and often insignificant. There was a lot of va1iability
among sites, and some of the impacts,
says Adams, stem from logging practices
that are no longer common, or even legal.
"The public has the misconception
that we're still in the Dark Ages on the
problems facing our watersheds," Adams
says. "In fact, we' ve learned a lot, and
we're already applying that knowledge to
prevent most problems of the past."
Streamside management
Starting about four decades ago,
forestry research at OSU began to move
toward the long-term, landscape-level
studies that are coming to be of great
interest to scientists today. The Alsea
Basin cooperative watershed study, begun
in 1959, was the first in the Northwest to
combine measures of water quality,
stream-channel habitat, and fi sh response
to logging across several watersheds.
The study compared the effects of
complete clearcutting and hot slash
burning on nearly
an entire basinthe accepted
practice of the
day- with those of
clearcutting three
separate patches of
40 to 65 acres each
in another basin,
leaving 50-to-l 00foot stream buffers. Measurements
in both basins were
compared with
those taken from
an untreated
control basin.
The study
sites were three
small watersheds
in the Alsea River
drainage, about 10
miles from the
Oregon coast. The
work was done by
agency and OSU
scientists, including a young forest hydrologist named
George Brown (please see profile of Dean
Brown on page 14).
The Alsea study was innovative in
many ways. It prescribed seven years of
information-gathering before any logging
was done. Measurements were taken for
seven years afterward, producing relatively long-term data on the effects of
logging on fisheries.
Concurrent watershed research on
the Andrews Experimental Forest, a
cooperative OSU-Forest Service research
forest on National Forest land east of
Eugene, was already looking at the effect
of logging on erosion and water runoff.
The Alsea study extended this work by
Focus on Forestry
Winter 1999
5
becoming the first in the Northwest to
look at the impacts of logging on fisheries.
How much is
enough?
Researchers are
looking at what
happens to
woody debris in
streams (below)
over tinie and
refining their
prescriptions fo r
how niuch is
needed.
flooding during major storms. In addition,
there was some concern-stemming from
other Alsea Basin findings- that large
Changing forest practices
quantities of decomposing plant material
used up the dissolved oxygen in the water,
More importantly, the Alsea study
stealing it from the fish and other aquatic
results were the first to influence Oregon
forest practices in a major way. The study life.
So it was not uncommon for fi sheries
found a five-fold increase in sediment in
agencies to require loggers to clean the
the stream after intensive logging and
streams with cable yarding equipment or
slash burning. The suddenly unshaded
streams also became too warm for fish to
even bulldozers. Often they removed even
the woody debris that was already in a
thrive.
stream before the area was logged.
These findings were instrumental in
Then OSU scientists, including Hank
justifying the 1971 Forest Practices Act
and subsequent rules, which called for
Froehlich, a now-retired Forest Engineering professor, as well as fisheries biololeaving a strip of streamside trees and
gists Jim Sedell and Stan Gregory,
other riparian vegetation to "buffer" the
pointed out that streams in unmanaged
negative effects of logging on the stream.
forests were full of chunks of wood, big
Riparian buffer strips have been an
and small. And the fi sh seemed to thrive
important regulatory tool for protecting
in these stream s.
streams ever since.
These observations, and subsequent
The considerable volume of stream
studies that proved them right, turned
research conducted since the Al sea study
forest practices around. Now it's not
has revealed more about what makes for
good fish and wildlife habitat in and along unusual for loggers to drop logs and
stumps into streams that are judged to
streams. Some of it has contradicted
lack sufficient woody debris. Some
earlier, seemingly commonsense policy.
For instance, during the 1960s and
management objectives call for logging
alder (carefully) from streambanks in
1970s, loggers often
order to establish conifers, which make
were required to
larger-sized, longer-lasting woody debris
remove logs and
when
they eventually die an,d fall into a
branches that fell into
stream.
streams during
Recent research is also showing that
logging operations,
along with wood that some of the large wood now lying in
streams did not fall in from the immediate
had accumulated
streambank, but entered the stream in
naturally. It was
landslides from steep terrain farther
thought that too
upslope. This finding is helping managers
much wood in the
refine strategies for leaving trees in places
stream channel
where they will achieve the most effective
would block fish
environmental benefits.
from swimming
The book is not yet closed on woody
upstream to spawn.
debris . There are undoubtedly differences
There was
in function between a 700-year-old log
indeed quite a bit of
that felJ into a stream in 1915 and a 100logging-related
year-old log that was placed there last
debris in many
Oregon streams at the year after a harvest operation. There's still
uncertainty about how much woody
time, and people
debris is enough, where in the stream it
were also worried
does the most good, and what its precise
that it would wash
out bridges and cause effects are on fish and other aquatic life.
f
College of Forestry scientists and
their research partners in the College of
Agricultural Sciences, the Forest Service
Pacific Northwest Research Station, and
other agencies are continuing to probe
these questions. Scientists and forest
managers are also working together to
monitor the habitat effects of both natural
and artificially placed wood chunks in
forest streams over time.
Today's
research is
forcing a
.. rethinking of
,;the common
notion that
landslides
and floods
are always
"bad."
Landslides and floods
Today's research is forcing a rethinking of the common notion that landslides
and floods are always "bad." Northwest
forests are dynamic and unstable places.
Large swaths of trees were periodically
flattened by wildfires, floods, and windstonns before humans arrived on the
scene.
For people, landslides and floods can
be inconvenient and occasionally tragicwashing out roads and bridges, and
sometimes taking human life. For fish and
other wildlife, they can thoroughly disrupt
habitat functions in some locations.
Nevertheless, these events are part of
the pattern of large and small disturbances
that gives the Northwest forest its essential character. The fish and wildlife species living in these forests are adapted to
surviving and thriving in a dynamic
landscape, where major disturbances
come and go in a recurring though irregular fashion.
The February 1996 floods brought
flood and landslide issues into sharp
focus. "These are natural events happening in a managed landscape," says Fred
Swanson, Forest Service geologist and
courtesy professor in the Forest Science
Department, "and they vividly illustrate
how complex are the watershed and
ecosystem responses to floods, especially
floods in steep, forested landscapes."
Swanson is a team leader at the H.J.
Andrews Experimental Forest, which is
managed jointly by the Forest Service
Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research
Station and the Will amette National
Forest, with OSU as a research cooperator. College of Forestry scientists are
collaborating with Forest Service scientists and others in many studies on the
Andrews.
College scientists serve on salmon team
Five OSU faculty members,
including two from the College of
ForestTy, are serving on a seven-member scientific panel that oversees
salmon recovery efforts in Oregon,
efforts collectively known as the
Oregon Plan.
The OSU team members are John
Buck.house of the Department of
Rangeland Resources; Stan Gregory of
the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife; Katy Kavanagh, a Forestry Extension and Forest Resources faculty
member; Logan Norris, head of the
Department of Forest Science and chair
of the team; and William Pearcy of the
College of Oceanic and Atmospheric
Sciences.
The team, which reports to the
state legislature, is assessing the scientific credibility of conservation efforts
by state agencies and groups of local
citizens. Its members act as peer reviewers of agency land management plans
and the plans of local watershed councils. Its findings will amount to an
ongoing scientific review of the Oregon
Plan.
Other team members are Wayne
Elmore of the Bureau of Land Management and Jim Lichatowich, a private
consultant.
A dynamic
landscape. Slides
like this one occur
throughout the
Coast Range, in
both managed and
unmanaged
forests.
The floods, Swanson says, have
inspired new studies and new looks at
long-term sets of data. Partly because of
its political currency, forest hydrologythe study of how water behaves in a
forested environment-is undergoing " a
quantum step" in sophistication, he says.
"Our ability to understand the inner
workings of a watershed is greater than
ever before."
Even so, scientists sti ll can't say for
certain which flood and landscape effects
are wholly natural and which ones are
influenced by forest management, and
how much they are influenced. Studies on
how logging and roadbuilding affect high
water flows in streams, for instance, have
been conducted by disparate methods in
several quite different watersheds, leading
to varying conclusions that have sparked
vigorous scientific debate.
It all comes back to complexity-the
tangled web of causes and effects in a
natural system that has been heavily
influenced by human activity. The complexity can be bewildering, making it
tempting for nonscientists, especially, to
simply throw up their
hands. Says Swanson,
"There's a tendency
to conclude that the
world is so complex
that we can't regulate
practices and assign
responsibility. But
science is saying,
'Let's go on to the
next step. Let's try to
disentangle the
complexity with new
studies."'
Swanson was
one of six team
members on a study
conducted jointly by
OSU, the Forest
Service, and the City
of Salem to determine why such
massive quantities of
sediment flowed
down the flooded
N01th Santiam River in the spring of
1996, during and after major stonn s. The
sediment prompted water bureau managers to shut down Salem's municipal
water-treatment system for eight days.
Logging and roads in the National
Forest watersheds in the upper North
Santiam basin seemed to some to be the
obvious cause. Yet the study, which used
X-ray and electron microscope analysis to
"fingerprint" soil particles in stream water
and detennine their origin, challenges that
assumption.
Srnectite clays, the smallest of the
clay-mineral particles, are common in
unstable soils in the Cascades. Because
they settle slowly, smectite clays are also
the main constituent of the most persistent
turbidity in streams, and the cause of
many water-quality problems.
The North Santiam study found that
much of the smectite clay responsible for
the turbidity came from the bottoms, or
"toes," of ancient, large, deep-seated
landslides in many places in the watershed. "This indicated that natural erosion
processes and identifiable source areas
were major contributors," says Swanson.
Roadcuts and smaller, shallower landslides in steep areas also contiibuted some
clay, but in smalJer concentrations.
The timing of the sediment's flu shing down the river was complicated by
releases of water from Detroit Lake,
which acted as a catch basin for silt.
Water released through Detroit Darn over
the few weeks after the flood earned
sediment still suspended in the lake
waters.
Finally, the team concluded, the first
flu sh of sediment probably came mostly
from sources below the dam, where many
human influences, not only logging, have
made a heavy imprint on the landscape.
"Overall, this study improved our
understanding of the inner workings of
the watershed," says Swanson. "We can
use these findings to identify the kinds
and locations of remediation or regulation
practices we need, and to provide a
technically sound fou ndation for public
discussion."
f
()
Where does the
sediment come
from? In one study
in the Cascades,
some sedilnent
entered streams as
a result of recent
landslides (as in
the photo at right,
taken in the Coast
Range), but niore
appeared to come
from erosion
processes at work
on ancient
earthflows.
j
(
Signal and noise
don' t get counted." And that makes the
link between logging and landslides look
"The natural signals from the Northstronger
than it really is, he says.
west forest landscape are very noisy,"
The state legislature, in response to
says Marv Pyles, professor of Forest
public concern, gave the Oregon DepartEngineering and one of four College of
ment of Forestry authority to temporarily
Forestry authors of a special report to
ban logging on areas identified as highOregon Governor John Kitzhaber on
risk for slides, and where a slide might
forest practices and landslides, prepared
endanger human life. "It's important,
in the aftermath of the 1996 floods.
"Landslides are aperiodic and unpre- though, for the public to recognize that
the hazard exists even in the absence of
dictable, and they happen in the absence
forest management," says Paul Adams.
of human activities," he says. "We are
"Logging may increase the ri sk, but the
usually powerless to know whether a
risk is there to start with."
particular landslide would have occurred
had there been no management in the
vicinity. We have a
number of widely
varying historical
averages for landslide
activity, but they don't
help in predicting
specific events."
Does forest
management- logging
and roadbuildingincrease landslides?
The science is not quite
so emphatic as some of
the opinions in the
popular media, Pyles
says. "Our highestquality data say yes,
but the data are so
variable that it's not a
profound yes. Logic
A good home for fish
and reason and physics suggest that the
Some dirt in the water is not a bad
changes we make in the forest landscape
thing for anadromous fish, those salmon
contribute to instability. But we can't put
and trout species that grow to maturity at
a watershed-wide, forest-wide, or statewide number on it."
sea but return to their native rivers to
spawn. In fact, the particular mix of soil
Pyles and his team , which included
particles in a river may be one of the
Forest Engineering professors Paul
Adams, Bob Beschta, and Arne Skaugset, signals that lead fish back to their native
looked at on-the-ground survey results to
streams.
get an accurate picture of where slides
Excess sediment, however, or sediment in the wrong places or at the wrong
have occurred, how much earth was
moved, and where it landed.
times, is not good for fish. It's one of the
Most other landslide inventories used several factors that contribute to the
only aerial photos, yielding an incomplete degradation of habitat for anadromous
picture, Pyles says. "From the air, you
fish in the Northwest, and the subsequent
decline of their populations.
can't see many of the natural landslides
What's to blame for this decline?
that occur under forest cover. So these
Focus on Forestry
Winter 1999
9
The list is long: dams, buildings, roads,
parking lots, urban and suburban life,
historical overfishing, today's commercial
and sport fisheries, hatchery operations,
predators, forestry, farming, ranching,
mining, manufacturing- all the human
activities that fall under the heading of
"development." Natural temperature
cycles in the ocean also play a large role,
as do predators and diseases.
Given the many interlocking factors,
how should society minimize the negative
effects of logging and other development?
Scientists agree that the quality of fish
habitat is crucial. In streams flowing
through Northwest forests , good habitat
means lots of large woody debris-not
only dead wood in the stream today, but
standing live trees to fall in at some time
in the future. It also means streambanks
bearing conifers, hardwoods, and shrubs
-Dave Hibbs in some optimal or at least adequate mix.
Exactly what such a mix should look
like, however, is a matter of some debate.
"People often don' t realize how variable
these forests are, in both space and time,"
says Dave Hibbs, a Forest Science professor and expert in streamside hardwoods.
"In unmanaged forests, as you move up
and down the stream, you run into all
Patchy and complex.
kinds of conditions-conifers, hardAbove right, trees and woods, shrubs, old trees, young trees, no
shrubs grow
trees. It's a very patchy set of vegetation
alongside forest
patterns that shifts around through time.
streams in a wide
Whether you manage or whether you
variety of patterns.
leave the forest alone, things are changing
Often there are
all the time."
hardwoods and
Some scientists call for leaving
shrubs along the
streams alone as much as possible to
stream and conifers
repair themselves. "The first step is to
farther upslope, but
stop doing whatever is causing the damnot always. Across,
age," says Bob Beschta, a forest hydrolothis CLAMS niap
gist and Forest Engineering professor.
shows another
"This is called passive restorationcomplex pattern, of
letting nature heal itself."
land ownership in the
Others (including Beschta, someAlsea Basin in
times) advocate a more active approach.
Oregon 's Coast
We've already noted one example: studies
Range.
conducted by College scientists are
looking at the effects of logging alders out
of the streamside area and regenerating
conifers there.
''
People don't
realize how
variable
these forests
are."
:l
10
Focus on Forestry
Winter 1999
The big picture
Whatever measures are chosen,
whether active, passive, or some mixture
of the two, managers are increasingly
considering an ecosystem-wide perspective, one that focu ses on the connections
among processes across the landscape.
Problem is, no one knows exactly
how to do that. Science offers a lot of
information about discrete pieces of the
landscape-stream reaches, riparian
areas, stand-size patches of forest, snags
where woodpeckers live. But until recently there was very little knowledge
about how all these pieces fit together,
how seemingly unrelated events are
linked across miles of ground or decades
of time.
Now, satellite landscape imaging and
powerful computers are broadening the
view. They are offering a wall-to-wall
picture of the current conditions of a
given landscape, clues about how each
part affects the other parts, and ways to
predict the landscape's various potential
futures .
A cooperative research program
dubbed CLAMS (Coastal Landscape
Analysis and Modeling Study) is pioneer-
e
Volume]
Number I
February 1999
College of
Forestry
The Campaign for the new Forestry
and Forest Products Manufacturing Research Laboratory
Oregon State
University
Fling open the doorsThe Lab is done!
Eighteen months of planning and
construction will finally bring years of
dreaming to a close in April. At the
same time, the doors to Richardson
Hall, the completed Forestry and
Forest Products Research Lab, will be
thrown open.An idea that began
over five years ago is now solidified.
The stairwell stands tall, the rebar
holds firm, and the wood beams are
displayed proudly.
From the outside, glass will
enclose the stairwells, revealing the
wooden cases. The brick exterior is
accented with wood beam overhangs and a bank of windows. Inside,
a large barn door leads to the
research bay with a kiln and a
lumber-testing area complete with
tensioning cables. On the third Hoor,
facing south, is a greenhouse with a
separate, secure insect-rearing facility.
The walls and beige paint will soon
hide a maze of copper plumbing and
electrical wiring.
The dream has been made
possible by the contributions of
many people. Former Senator Mark
Hatfield was instrumental in
securing $10 million in federal
appropriations. Another $13 million
came from private, corporate, and
foundation sources. And a bequest
of timber land from Kaye Richardson
added a vital $24 million to the
project, and gave a name to the new
Laboratory.
Soon the busy crew members
will be gone and replaced with
Forest Science and Forest Products
scientists. Then, the dream of the
new Richardson Hall will be fulfilled
daily.
Forestry alums will get a sneak
preview of the new Laboratory on
Fernhopper Day, May 15. Mark your
calendars now.
-S.H.
Starkers pledge
Starker Forests, Inc., of Corvallis has
pledged $250,000 toward the
silviculture laboratory and the extended
education classroom in the new
Forestry and Forest Products
Manufacturing Research Lab.
The gift supports projects dear to
the hearts of Bond and Barte Starker,
president and executive vice-president,
respectively, of the family-owned
company. "We wanted to support the
silviculrure lab because silviculrure is the
primary tool of active management to
improve the productivity and yield of
the forest. whether that be measured in
timber or other forest values; says Bond
Starker. "It's a principal, basic activity in
forest management."
As for extended education. says
Starker. "We think it's a valuable part of
the schoors overall mission. we·re
interested in getting knowledge out to
practitioners, getting it applied out there
on the ground."
News from Alumni
1929
Lorance Eickwor~h, FM, Coos Bay,
OR. "I read 'Connections' and thought
I would add a little bit to it. I graduated in forestry in 1929, just in time to
meet the big Depression. My first job
was in a box factory at 28 1/ 2 cents per
hour, but any job was welcome. My
next job was with Evans Products Co.
as a time-study engineer at $2.50 per
day. In 1934 I quit Evans, and with the
help of another fellow started the
Oregon Pacific Co., selling mill,
logging, and marine supplies. In 1943
I sold out to my partner and went back
to Evans Products Co. as a material
control engineer. Evans, by the way,
manufactures battery separators out of
Port Orford cedar. In 1948 I quit
Evans a second time, took the state
real estate exam, and sold real estate
until I retired in 1964. I am staying at
the Ocean Crest Nursing Home with a
bad case of arthritis. I will soon be 94
years old."
1942
Joe Jaeger, FM, Jefferson City, MO.
l
A new training academy for state park
employees has been named in honor of
Joseph Jaeger. The first session of the
Joseph Jaeger Academy of State Parks
was held in October at the University
Forest near Poplar Bluff. The academy
is designed to improve training and
educational opportunities for employees within DNR's Division of State
Parks. As its longest tenured director,
Jaeger guided the state park system
toward improved professionalism and
needed expansion. Beginning with his
appointment in 1955, Jaeger oversaw
the development and operation of the
state park system for nearly 17 years.
1948
Gordon Borchgrevink, FP, Medford,
OR. "Ten years now I've been retired
from Medford/Medite Corporation and
still keeping busy with house remodeling, golfing, and county forest resources committees. Some travel as
time allows. Not a motor home
devotee at all; we like great hotels,
motels. That's vacationing for us. Sold
my forest land five years ago due to
hip problems. Have had three replacements on same side in 20 years but I
still get around the golf course pretty
well, thanks to golf carts. Looking
forward to 50th anniversary class
reunion."
1951
Val Don Hickerson, FM, Bandon,
OR. "Dear Fellow Fernhoppers: It has
been some time since I've been in
contact with all of you. Nearly ten
years since I went to the last
Fernhopper Day. Good to see pictures
in the latest newsletter of Clarence
Richen, for whom I worked in the
' 50s, and Marv Rowley, who was
several years ahead of me in school. I
do get to OSU occasionally to witness
the Beavers go through another losing
season with the constant hope for
success. Both our oldest son, Jess, who
still lives in Corvallis, and daughter,
Leslie, are OSU alumni, and our son
Hans graduated from Crescent Valley
High School.
"After retiring from the Air Force in
1974, there have been many activities.
The forest-related ones include
retailing my Christmas trees in Tucson
in 1977-78 and hauling them from the
Olympic Peninsula to a sorting yard in
1979 while managing a small forest
tract near Rainier, Washington. The
latter was traded in 1980 for the 40
acres of timberland near Bandon,
Oregon, which is now my residence.
Good to be back in my native state.
Believe me, this size parcel takes
about all my time, especially since I
do nearly everything myself. My
()
forestry skills have been augmented by
falling, bucking, cat and loader
operation, high climbing, road
building, pond development, building
construction, firewood sales and
delivery, backhoe work, brush picking,
surveying, serving on OSWA board,
and everything else imaginable. Makes
me think back on how easy it was with
Crown Zellerbach and the State Forest
Protective Association. The current
"boss" is much more demanding than
the others were.
"As a seven-year-old I witnessed
the Tillamook Burn, and later, in the
1940s, I helped fight several faes.
Trees I helped plant as a Boy Scout
and Crown forester in Clatsop County
are now ready for harvest. Some are
visible from Highway 26 when
approaching Seaside. I go there often
to visit my sister and school friends
and to attend high school reunions.
t._
Kind thoughts to all of you."
1958
Richard D. Zechentmayer, FM,
King City, CA. "After 42 years of
public service, I retired from the U.S.
Forest Service. My last day of regular,
scheduled work was January 2, 1998.
My career started on the Willamette
National Forest. I moved on and
through the Umpqua and Deschutes
National Forests before transferring to
the Los Padres National Forest in
Region 5. On the Los Padres, I served
as project planner following the 1977
Marble Cone wildfire. After completing the Marble Cone project in 1979, I
remained on the Monterey Ranger
District as staff officer in wilderness,
recreation, lands, minerals, resource
planning, public affairs, and Ranger
District administration. My wife Mary
Lou and I will stay in the King City,
California, area. As a city councilman,
I continue to remain active in city,
county, and regional affairs."
f
Mahlon Hale, FM, Bend, OR. "After
(.t
38 exciting years with the U.S. Forest
Service, I retired and am living in
Bend. The outdoor recreation here is
great, although now lots of people are
coming here to live and congestion is a
problem. I particularly enjoyed working 15 years at the Bend Pine Nursery
prior to retirement because of the
challenges of designing a tree inventory system, writing contracts to
contract out about 75 percent of our
work, and the challenge of learning
how to grow seedling trees and process
tree seeds. At age 67 I still enjoy
bicycle touring, hiking in the Cascade
Mountains, and cross-country skiing.
Recently I have developed some health
problems that have slowed me down
but not stopped me. I am looking
forward to having more fun with folks
my own age (and stamina)!"
Ranger District, Umatilla National
Forest. There were a few more fires
this year, as well as a 5,000 acre
underburn 6-10 miles from the tower.
We also had an ongoing timber sale
along the road to the tower, as well as
the archery hunters. I haven' t had so
much fun since I was a 17-year-old
fire suppression crew member for the
Washington State Department of
Natural Resources in 1961. The
district fire management officer is also
a Fernhopper.
"My painting of the tower at sunset
drew $ 160 last fall before the paint
was dry, so the lookout contract spins
off ideas and income beyond its
season. I'm currently working on a
watercolor of Madison closed up for
the winter and shrouded in a
snowstorm."
Dale Stennett, FE, John Day, OR.
1959
LeRoy Johnson, FM, Bishop, CA. "It
now appears I am added to the list of
"cancer survivors." On my birthday
~ last year I had a radical prostatectomy
-' and it appears I'm clean of the disease.
If you want a life of leisure, don' t
retire! I'm busier now than when I was
employed full-time: teaching, volunteer fire chief, historical research,
writing, organizing historical conferences, HOST program at Mammoth
(yes, free skiing), and exploring the
mountains around Bishop, California."
1962
N. Earl Spangenberg, FM, Stevens
Point, WI. "I am a professor of
forestry and water science at the
University of Wisconsin at Stevens
Point. I was recently elected president
of the American Water Resources
Association, a national organization
that includes nearly 4,000 members
around the country."
1967
Orod Files, FM, Boardman, OR. "I
enjoyed another tour of duty on
Madison Butte Lookout, Heppner
"I'm still working for D.R. Johnson
Lumber Co. in the John Day-Prairie
City area. Thanks to management
changes a year ago, I went from
logging manager to pencil-pushing
gopher boy. But I'm still in wood
products and thankful for it. Impeach
you-know-who and get rid of Al Gore
so forestry may be practiced. We are
trying to survive instead of leading the
charge. Speak up!"
1969
Bill Dryden FM, Boise, ID. "Last fall
I became the director of public and
private timber affairs for Boise
Cascade. Seeking workable solutions
to regulatory and environmental issues
that affect our timber supply is the
challenge. Sue and I remain in Boise,
where she spends many days as a
substitute teacher in the local high
schools. Rachel is finishing up her
junior year at Whitman College with a
six-month overseas study in Austria.
Seth will graduate from Boise High
School in May and head off to college
this fall. Closing in on thirty years
since graduation! I will be looking for
my 1969 classmates at Fernhopper
Day. Job well done, George Brown."
In memoriam
Walter Hans Lund '27 died on
November 10, after a brief illness.
Mr. Lund was born at home on the
family farm in Warren, OR, on
January 10, 1902, where he spent
his childhood and youth before
moving to Portland in 1917, at the
age of 15, to work and continue
his education. After graduating
from Washington High School, he
continued to work in Portland on
weekends while earning his B.S.
degree in forestry from OSU.
Lund had a long and distinguished career with the U.S.
Forest Service, for which he was
given the Secretary of Agriculture's
Superior Service Award in 1960.
His many contributions to public
service are recorded in "Timber
Management in the Pacific Northwest Region, 1927-1965," published by the University of California at Berkeley in 1967.
Lund is survived by his wife,
Sislin "Cissy" Hawley Lund, and
her children, Sam, Bruce, and
Margarett; his daughters, Karen
Schoot and her children (Dana,
Sam); Lenore Akerson and her
children (Andrew, Marigale Rice,
Christian, Philip); the children of a
daughter who predeceased him,
Marigale Smith (Walt, Matt, Lee,
Loren); and many nephews,
nieces, and great-grandchildren.
He was also predeceased by the
mother of his children, Leonore
Metcalf Lund, and by a grandson,
Ian A. Scott.
1972
Brad Toman FM, Hillsboro, OR. " I
continue to work for the Oregon
Department of Revenue with the
administration of the Forest Products
harvest tax and the Western and
Eastern Oregon privilege taxes. There
have been many changes over the
years with timber taxes and probably
more to come. I have a daughter
attending OSU as a senior with a
double major-art and math. I also
have a son attending OSU, a freshman
in mechanical engineering. Two great
things happened in the fall of '98: a
resounding defeat of Measure 64, and
the Beavers won the football Civil War
game! Way to go, Beavers."
1975
Pat Downing, FRR, Monroe, OR.
"After graduating from OSU, I taught
forestry first at Scio High School, then
at Philomath High School. During the
summers I worked as a contract timber
cutter. In 1983, while continuing my
teaching, my wife Suzie and I started
Downing's Gym in Corvallis. (I was a
competitive Olympic lifter in college,
starting the OSU Weightlifting Club
with Geno Houston. Dr. J.P. O'Shea
was our advisor.) I needed a good
place to continue my training, although we got so busy it was hard to
find time to work out! After ten years
of teaching, I quit to work at the gym
full time, taking summers to continue
cutting. In 1996 we converted our gym
to Gold's Gym and are still at our
current location on SW Third in
Corvallis. I still work as a timber
cutter, but now I cut full time. My wife
Suzie and sons Mike and Josh oversee
the management of the gym. We have
three sons: Ty (27) graduated from
OSU in '93 as a photojournalism
major, now lives in Portland as a
freelance photographer; Mike (22) is
married and works full-time at the
gym; Josh (20) is a sophomore at
Western Oregon University. This job is
perfect for him. He's training hard to
play football at WOU in ' 99. We work
with a lot of OSU students at the gym,
and most of our employees are students. This term we have a Forestry
graduate student as an employee,
Shoma Broussard."
Carlton Yee, FE, Bend, OR. "In
October 1998 my wife and I moved to
six miles outside of Sisters. We have
seven peaks in our front yard (including the Three Sisters and Broken Top)
and the view is worth a million
dollars-or more. We chose Central
Oregon because we love the climate,
activities, and energy of the area. We
are definitely glad to be leaving
mildew and new-age homeless hippies
behind in Arcata. I am going to retire
at the end of next academic year and
am commuting on weekends to
Humboldt. Living in Bend, I hope to
get back to OSU more frequently
now."
1983
Pamela Matson, FS Ph.D., Berkeley,
CA. Pam Matson was named an OSU
Alumni Fellow in October. One of
three university
alumni to receive
the award, she
was honored at
the Alumni
Fellows Award
dinner and
recognized at the
homecoming
football game.
In 1983 Matson was the first
woman to earn a doctoral degree in the
College's Forest Ecology program. In
1995 she was awarded a prestigious
fellowship from the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
She is a professor of ecosystem
ecology at the University of California
at Berkeley.
1993
Kaz Yamaguchi, FR, Sapporo,
Japan. "To Dean Brown: I'm very
happy to hear that the College of
Forestry is getting bigger and better."
1995
Greg Vandegrift, FRR, Palm Beach
Gardens, FL. "I haven't spoken or
written to anyone since graduation,
March 1995. As of now, I live in West
Palm Beach, FL, as a wholesale
representative for Northland Corporation, a distributer of hardwood lumber.
I just started and enjoy it very much.
My education through the Forest
Products department is coming in use
daily, something I thought wouldn ' t
happen. Good luck and success with
the new building."
)
Order your Annual Cruise
The 1998-99 College of Forestry
Annual Cruise yearbook is under way!
The 1996-97 Cruise won a national
SAP award for student publications.
This year's staff is looking forward to
another great book.
To reserve your copy now, contact
Alex Dunn at 54 1-737-4670, or order
by e-mail at annualcruise@
cof.orst.edu.
Order now! For just $20 you can
stay in touch with student life here at
the College, get your name listed as a
sponsor, and help students out with a
great activity.
Mark your calendars for
two very special events
Fernhopper Day 1999 is set for
Saturday, May 15. Fernhoppers will
be the FIRST members of the public
to tour OSU's new Forestry Research
Laboratory, Richardson Hall.
Just 15 days later, official dedication
ceremonies for Richardson Hall will
be held on Thursday, May 27, at 1:30
p.m., in the west courtyard of the
new Laboratory, located just off
Jefferson west of 30th. Guided tours
will begin at 3 p.m.
Just a note: Dedication ceremonies
for the Valley Library renovation are
set for the next day, Fliday, May 28.
Stay for two days, and see two
wonderful facilities.
J_)
~ •State
.BLM
USFS
0 Private industrial
0 Private nonindustrial
0 Other lands:
National Park,
Monument, Grassland, National
Wildl~fe Refuge
Military & Army
C01ps of Engineers
Indian reservations
Otherfederal lands
City lands
County lands
D
~I
IT I
.-ID
l
_,
n
ing a landscape-level study of the Coast
Range. CLAMS scientists are using
satellite images, along with information
about current conditions on the ground
and the intentions of landowners, to build
computer models projecting how the
nature and timing of various management
strategies might play out on the watersheds of the Coast Range over the next
100 years.
The models will predict not only
how the trees and other vegetation will
look at various points in space and time,
but how their distribution will likely
affect fish and wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, and the area's
economy.
It's an ambitious goal, says Norm
Johnson, professor in the Forest Resources department and a lead researcher
with CLAMS, ajoint
effort that includes
thePNW
Research
Station
and the
Department of Forestry. With its mgged
landscape, checkered history of natural
disturbance, complicated ownership
patterns, and disparate effects of past land
management, the Coast Range is about as
varied as a landscape can be. This variability makes it difficult to trace meaningful patterns and connections.
"We've had some practice at projecting outcomes of various management
strategies for the whole landscape, but
only in the aggregate over time," says
Johnson. "Now we have the capability of
simulating the spatial distribution of these
activities across the landscape."
Results of each simulation are
displayed on maps showing what the
forests of the Coast Range might look like
at various points in the future, if certain
management choices were set into motion
today.
Variations in the watershed maps
show changes in habitat conditions for
certain wildlife species over time and
changes in the
amount and
distribution of
older forest
over time.
Other
II
..
(
N
A
012345
I
WCU
----S::i
Miles
Focus on Forestry
Winter 1999
11
tions of the model predict how these
conditions may affect timber income and
recreational opportunities in the area.
''
These maps
seem to
draw people
into the
analysis.
People can
place themselves in the
landscape."
-Nonn Johnson
Joint learning
The CLAMS maps, says Norm
Johnson, are not only powerful discovery
tools for scientists; they are learning tools
for policymakers and the public. An
important objective of CLAMS, he says,
is to make it possible for people to discuss
the outcomes of alternative policies
before they are adopted. "These maps
seem to draw people into the analysis.
They create a high level of interestpeople can place themselves in the landscape, and envision what the outcomes of
various policies might look like. That
makes the maps a great tool for joint
learning."
And the more educated and involved
people are, says Johnson, the more likely
it is that they' ll act in an informed and
deliberative way to
craft a
sound,
long-term
publi c
policy.
"My
hope," he
says, "is
that our
work will
lower the
level of rhetoric and increase the level of
understanding for all of us."
For Oregonians who care about the
natural environment-who care about the
web of water that binds us and future
generations together with the rest of our
natural world-such an understanding
would seem to be a dandy place to start.
COPE closes with major conference
The Coastal Oregon Productivity
Enhancement Program, a major
cooperative research program focused
on Coast Range forest resources,
ended a successful 12-year run with a
January symposium titled "Forests and
Streams of the Oregon Coast Range:
Building a Foundation for Integrated
Resource Management."
More than 500 people attended
the two-day conference at OSU. They
heard presentations from more than 40
COPE researchers, including a score
from the College of Forestry. The
scientists spoke on such widely varying topics as the natural hi story of the
Coast Range ecosystem, logging
aimed at improving stream habitat,
thinning of young-tree stands to
cultivate older-forest characteristics,
and the social and economic implications of changing land-use patterns.
"COPE has given us a new vision
of the coastal forest, one that emphasizes the role of disturbance and diversity in shaping the landscape," said
Dean George Brown in his closing
remarks. "It's forced us to think outside
the box in terms of what that means for
management."
As Associate Dean for Research in
1987, Brown was instrumental in
getting COPE organized. The project
has been a joint effort among OSU and
federal and state agencies, local governments, and private businesses. Its
mission is to provide information to
managers and the public on how to deal
with the timber, fish, wildlife, and other
resources of the Coast Range in an
integrated manner.
COPE research findings are being
compiled into a major book titled
Forest and Stream Management in the
Oregon Coast Range, to be published
in the fall of this year.
-
-
-
+
-
Alumni Profile
Passionate about
good policy
P
eter Wakeland '95 is a man
who's worn many hats. He's a
forester overseeing timber sales for
the Confederated Tribes of the Grand
Ronde. Before that, he
was an OSU
Forestry
student who
graduated in
1995 with a
bachelor of
science degree
in forest
management.
He even
dabbled as a
g
0
.c:
pool cleaner
0.
«!
and a beverage
E
0
salesman.
~e;
Now this
"'
~
everyday man
!S
will wear
another hat: as
the Mark 0.
- Peter Wakeland Hatfield
Congressional
Fellow.
As the
Grand Ronde tribe's first fellow in Congress, he will work in Sen. Ron Wyden's
office for nine months starting in January.
For Wakeland, 36, the fellowship is
one step closer to fulfilling a dream of
working in Washington D.C., as a liaison
between Native Americans and Congress.
This isn't the first time he's been in the
capital; as a student at OSU, he served as
an intern at the Office of Legislative
Affairs. That experience fueled a desire to
make a difference. "I really became aware
that policies have just an unbelievable
effect, a real tangible effect, on people's
''
The best
.people, the
,
-real leaders,
could make a
difference."
:l
U)
Jives, sometimes good, sometimes bad,"
said Wakeland, who is Umpqua Indian.
"The best people, the real leaders, could
make a difference. It's become a passion
that I don ' t want to
see people hurt by
bad policymaking."
The selection
committee, made up
of the Grand Ronde
Tribe, Wyden's
staff, and Hatfield's
representatives,
believe they have
the right man for the
job. The hope is that
Wakeland will come
back to the tribe
with information on
issues that might
affect the lives of
Native Americans,
said Amber Russell,
a spokeswoman for
the Spirit Mountain
Casino, which is
sponsoring the ninemonth fellowship. "He really embodies
what we believe the fellowship is all
about, which is public service and integrity," Russell said.
The fellowship allows a Native
American to serve as a staff member for
one of the seven members of Oregon's
Congressional delegation. The placement
will rotate to the office of a different
member each year. Spirit Mountain
Casino will provide $55,000 from its
community funds for the fellowship
winner's salary and travel expenses.
Salem Statesman-Journal
Reprinted by permission
Focus on Forestry
Winter 1999
13
Not afarmer after all
But like his farmer mentor, George Brown
has shaped his life around a deep sense
of stewardship for the land
S
Amoustrap
mind ... Above,
George Brown at
work as a
research
assistant for the
PNW Research
Station in the
mid-1960s.
14
urveying George Brown's life and
career, one is somehow not surprised to learn that his first vocation was fanning. Brown has carried a
good farmer's conservation ethic into his
scholarship, his teaching, and his leadership of one of the largest forestry research
institutions in
the country.
Brown
is now on the
eve of retirement-he' II
step down as
Dean of the
CoJlege of
Forestry next
August. His
career,
distinguished
in both
research and
academic
leadership,
has borne the
ethic of
pragmatic
stewardship
that he
brought with
him from his
Midwestern
boyhood.
Like a
good farmer,
he's worked hard to protect and build up
the resource for which he 's responsiblewhether it be a research agenda, an
Focus on Forestry
Winter 1999
academic department, or a whole College
with a full range of teaching, research,
and outreach responsibilities.
Thrifty and hardworking
Growing up in west-central Missoud, Brown had farming relatives, but
his parents
were town
people.
During one
memorable
summer of ·~•
his teen-age
years, he
worked for an
elderly
farmer, a
thrifty,
hardworking
German
immigrant
whose conservation
ethic shaped
and nurtured
Brown's own.
"He
instilled in
me the
importance of
resources in
servmg
humankind,"
says Brown.
"He was proud to be a farmer because he
saw himself as part of the system that
provided food for hungry people."
... and a winning
personality. Clockwise
from top left: showing
his students how to
measure streamflows
(photo from, the 1969
Annual Cruise),
chatting with students
and.faculty at last
fall's barbecue, and
sharing a smile with
()-allege friend Vera
'Vl licok at the Dean's
appreciation dinner.
This vision carried with it "a
deep sense of stewardship for the
land," says Brown. This farmer
was among the first to invest in
environmental improvements, such
as terracing hillsides and planting
st:reambanks with grass to prevent
erosion. "He was a conservationist
in every sense of the word, although he' d never have called
himself one," says Brown. "B ut his
philosophy, and the way he lived it
in his life's work, planted the seed
that led me to forestry."
In his early adolescence,
Brown read everything he could
find about farming. When he got to
high school he enrolled in a vocational-ag course. But he came to
realize that farmers need land,
buildings, machinery, tools. "I just
didn ' t have the resources." Reluctantly, he looked for another way.
His search led him to Colorado State University,
where he earned a
bachelor's in forest
management in 1960. At
college he became
acquainted with Bob
Dils, a professor who
was building a brandnew program in forest
watershed management,
the first in the United
States.
He wanted Brown
to study with him. Brown
was eager to do it. Here
was a new opportunity to
follow a conservation
path. "Bob Dils was a
very inspirational leader
for me," Brown says.
Dils remembers his
former student with
fondness and respect. "I
was delighted when
George decided to go
into the watershed program ," he says. "He was
one of the better students
I had in 23 years of teaching. He
had a lot of native intellectual
ability, and a natural inquisitiveness. But he also had a stick-to-itiveness-he wasn't one to quit
halfway through anything. He was
cheerful, considerate of others-he
had a winning personality."
His fellow students remember
him a gregarious man with a quick,
keen intellect. "He had a mousetrap
mind," says Jim Krygier, a fellow
grad student who was on sabbatical
from the Forestry faculty at Oregon
State. "He grasped ideas very
quickly and easily, but more than
that, he had the rare capability of
focusing on solutions."
Jim Meiman, now retired
Dean of Colorado State's graduate
school, shared a student office with
Brown. "He had a lot of diverse
interests," Meiman recalls. "He
read Eastern philosophy. He liked
Leadership. The new
Forestry Research
Laboratory, now
named Richardson
Hall, will be a Lasting
Legacy of Brown's
leadership. Here he is
with project
superintendent Tim
Carpenter in the
building's almostfinished west
courtyard. Across,
making a point in a
presentation with
Forest Science
professor Steve
Strauss.
16
jazz. He had a lively
expecting to be here for only a couple of
personality and a love of
years," Brown says.
After Krygier recovered, however,
people. He was a lot of fun
to be around."
Brown stayed on, teaching in the Forest
Management department and then becomAfter getting his
ing head of the Forest Engineering departmaster's in 1962, Brown
spent two years with the
ment in 1973, under then-Dean Carl
Stoltenberg.
3rd Armored Division in
"He showed a great administrative
Germany. Returning home,
he called his old friend Jim ability," says George Jemison, who joined
Krygier, who was back in
the Forestry faculty in 1970 after retiring
Corvallis, building a forest as Forest Service deputy chief for research. "He had a diplomatic way of
hydrology research program at Oregon State.
presenting his point of view, and he was
Krygier invited
always generous and kind. "
Jemison and Brown, who's some 30
Brown to come to
years younger, struck up an immediate
Corvallis and work with
him on a major new study
and close friendship. "All my life I've
of logging and watersheds
been an ardent fisherman ," Jemison says.
"George had a driftboat, and he and I
in the Oregon Coast
spent many a day drifting the rivers of
Range. Krygier had landed some grant
money for his part of the Alsea Basin
Oregon, fishing for salmon and steelLogging and Aquatic Resources Study, as head."
During these excursions the two
it was called. He wanted George Brown
working with him, designing studies that
friends often talked over problems of
would help in the devising of an "energy
watershed management and timber harvesting, Jemison says. "And in addition ttt~.,.
budget" that could be used to predict
these intellectual moments, George
stream temperatures under a variety of
circumstances.
always took over the chores of launching
the boat, rowing, puJJing the anchor,
"Our goal was to get a truer understanding of the energy factors influencing cleaning the fish (if any), and toting them
stream temperature," Krygier says. "We
back to the car. What a guy!"
By the mid-1970s, Brown was a
were building a framework for looking at
firmly transplanted Oregonian. He served
stream temperatures that was different,
more complex, than the work that had
as Forest Engineering department head
been done before. I knew it would take a
until 1986, when he was promoted to
lot of creativity to put the ideas and the
Associate Dean for research. He became
tools together for this research. And I
Dean in 1990, when Carl Stoltenberg
retired.
knew George Brown had the right capabilities."
So Brown came to Corvallis in 1964 Policy-focused research
and began working with Krygier. (Please
He stayed, he says, because Oregon
see the cover story, beginning on page 4,
State is a place where a scientist can feel
for more about the Alsea Basin study.)
the positive impact of research on the
That year he began work on his doctorate practice of forestry. "This is the place
in forest hydrology. He completed the
where policy issues of regional and
program in two years, working 18-hour
national significance get hammered out,"
days and 7-day weeks.
he says.
Just as he finished, Krygier fell ill,
The Alsea Basin study, conducted ·
and Brown was asked to take over
the early 1970s, marked the beginning of
Krygier's teaching and research duties at
the College's role as a center for policythe School of Forestry. "I agreed to do it,
focused research. Earlier studies here and
Focus on Forestry
Winter 1999
''
l'ma
pragmatist.
I like to see
;Jhings used."
elsewhere had looked at logging's impacts
on floods and erosion. But the Alsea
Basin study was the first to cross over into
the biological realm by documenting the
effects of forest practices on fish habitat.
It was, in fact, an early environmental-in1pact research project, and its findings led directly to Oregon's groundbreaking Forest Practices Act and its
subsequent regulations, which included
mies for leaving buffer strips to shade
streams in logged areas.
The Alsea study was " a classic
blending of fundamental and applied
research," Brown says. "We did basic
studies on energy balance in streams, and
these led into more-applied research,
which led in turn to changes in forest
policy."
As Dean, Brown has worked to bring
that marriage of theory and practice into
the programs of the Forest Research Lab,
the College's research ann. It appeals, he
says, to the good farmer in him: "I'm a
pragmatist, and I like to see things used."
Building up the soil
Brown became Dean at a low moment, financially speaking, for the College. A property-tax-reduction initiative
took effect in Oregon nine months after
his appointment, and all state agencies
were feeling its impact. OSU and other
state universities had to tighten their
teaching budgets.
Also, harvests on federal forests
were severely curtailed after the northern
spotted owl was listed as threatened under
the Endangered Species Act in 1990.
Because FRL research
is funded partly from
harvest taxes, research
budgets also felt the
pinch.
Brown began a
vigorous fundraising
program to supplement the College's
state and federal
funding. When he
became Dean, the College's endowment
of gift money stood at $6 million. Today it
is about $60 million. " Our successful
development program tells me that people
see us as a good investment," Brown says.
"They're investing their fortunes in the
future of this College."
Private gifts have provided significant improvements in the College's
programs. The almost-completed new
Research Laboratory was made possible
by a 1993 bequest of land worth $24
million. That same bequest, from the late
Kaye Richardson, funds three endowed
chairs, one each in Forest Science, Forest
Engineering, and Forest Products, as well
as an endowment to support teaching. A
fourth endowed chair, in family and
private forestry, was created by a 1995
gift from Elizabeth Starker Cameron of
Corvallis.
"These endowed chairs have allowed
us to recrnit nationally and internationally
recognized teachers and scientists, and
they in turn attract top-quality graduate
students," says Brown. "These gifts have
added significantly to the excellence of
the faculty we have right now."
College faculty appreciate his leadership, says Bart Thielges, Associate Dean
for Research and Brown's second-incommand. "He deals well with people at
all levels. He's always helpful, honest,
and frank in his interactions, and he never
dodges tough issues." As a result, he says,
faculty morale is high. "We've had very
little attiition due to resignations or early
retirements."
For his own part, says Thielges, "it
has been a great pleasure to work with
him. He always made me feel he and I
were truly a team."
Another of Brown's key accomplishments is the College's vigorous outreach
to its various clients, including smallwoodland owners, industi·y and publicagency land managers, and legislators and
policymakers. He even was featured in a
television spot on management practices
to protect streams, produced by the
Please turn to Dean, page 20
Focus on Forestry
Winter 1999
17
Kudos to faculty and staff
Steve Hobbs
Bart Thielges
Paul Adams
Logan Norris
18
Dean George Brown recently
recognized several faculty members for
outstanding achievement.
Stephen Hobbs, professor in the
Department of Forest Science, was recognized with a Dean's Award for Outstanding Achievement at the December faculty
and staff awards dinner. Hobbs was
honored for his exceptional leadership in
managing the COPE program (Coastal
Oregon Productivity Enhancement), a
major, OSU-Forest Service cooperative
fundamental and applied research effort to
improve understanding and management
of Oregon Coast Range forest and stream
ecosystems. COPE is winding up 12 years
of research this year (please see COPE,
page 12).
Steven Strauss, Forest Science, also
received a Dean's Award for his international leadership in the field of forest
genetics and genetic engineering, including garnering $4.7 million in grant funding and organizing the College's largest
research cooperative, directed at genetic
engineering of hybrid poplar. The cooperative has national and international
industrial membership.
Also recognized with a Dean's
Award was Associate Dean Bart Thielges
for his heavy involvement, mostly behind
the scenes, in the planning, financing, and
construction of Richardson Hall, the new
Forestry and Forest Products Manufacturing Research Laboratory, scheduled for
completion in April.
Faculty members who helped Oregon policymakers with landslide,
salmon, and fish-habitat issues were also
Focus on Forestry
Winter 1999
recognized with Dean's Awards. Honored
were
•Governor John Kitzhaber's landslide team- Forest Engineering professors Paul Adams, Bob Beschta, Marv
Pyles, and Arne Skaugset-for their
expertise and hard work in developing a
white paper for the governor on landslides
and forest practices;
• Dave Hibbs, Forest Science professor, who advised the Board of Forestry
and the National Marine Fisheries Service
on historic patterns of streamside vegetation and implications of managing riparian areas to enhance fish habitat; and
• Logan Norris, Forest Science
~
professor and department head, and Katy
Kavanagh, Forestry Extension faculty
member and assi stant professor in the
Forest Resources department, for their
continuing service on the Governor's
Independent, Multidisciplinary Science
Team, which oversees the implementation
of the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watershed. The goal of the Oregon Plan is the
recovery of depressed salmon and steelhead populations in Oregon.
t ,.
Katy Kavanagh, Clatsop County
Extension faculty member and assistant
professor in the Forest Resources department, and Bill Emmingham, Extension
specialist and professor in the Forest
Science department, received a 1998
Search for Excellence Award at the annual
OSU Extension Conference held on
campus in September. They were recognized for their leadership in developing a
video-based long-distance course, "Practi-
-
Katy Kavanagh
Dave Hibbs
Nonn Elwood
cal applications of uneven-aged management." Also cited for contributions to the
Extension program were Mark Reed,
senior instructor in the Forestry Media
Center, and OSU's Sustainable Forestry
Partnership.
Al so at the conference, Mike
Reichenbach, Extension forester in
McMinnvil le, received a Newer Faculty
Award for excellence in Extension programming. Katy Kavanagh and Renee
Bunch, Clatsop County Forestry program
assistant, were also recognized for their
peer-reviewed poster, "Using COPE
information to deliver research-based
information to communities and watershed councils."
Dave Hibbs, professor in the Forest
Science department, has been selected to
serve as the first non -French associate
editor of Annals of Forest Science, a
publication of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA).
Norm Elwood was one of several
Extension Service faculty recently honored by the Agiicultural Communicators
in Education (ACE) , an international
professional society. Elwood and his
colleagues received a gold first-place
award for their newsletter "Communicate!"
John Garland, professor in the
Forest Engineering department, was
honored for his publication, "Timber
harvesting, how we see it." The publication was designated an Outstanding
Extension Forestry Publication for 1998,
one of five so recognized in the United
States. The award, which recognized
John Garland
Garland's innovative use of photographic
manipulation, was presented by the
National Woodland Owners Association
and the Natural Resources and Environment Division of USDA's Cooperative
State Research, Education, and Extension
Service.
Forestry jobs Web site
available to alumni
A College Web site featuring announcements for seasonal and entry-level
permanent forestry jobs is now open to
College of Forestry alumni as well as
students. Jobs may require a bachelor's
degree or up to fi ve years' experience, or
both. Access to the site is restricted to
OSU Forestry students and alumni. Email Connie Patterson at
pattersc@ccmail.orst.edu with your
name and graduation year. She will e-mail
you the Web address.
A new intern at Focus
Sarah Hucka, a junior in Forest
Recreation, has joined the Focus on
Forestry staff for
winter term as
assistant editor to
Gail Well s. The job
is a writing internship for Sarah and
will help her achieve
her minor in wiiting.
Sarah is excited at
the prospect of
gaining expeiience in writing and becoming more familiar with the College of
Forestry.
- S.H.
Focus on Forestry
Winter 1999
19
Dean------------------------------Continued from page 17
''
Our outreach
contributions
span the
whole
gamut."
College's Forestry Media Center.
The TV spot, sponsored by the
Oregon Forest Resources Institute, was
played on television stations statewide,
making Brown's face a little more familiar to the public. "He does a heck of a
good job in front of a camera," says coproducer Jeff Hino. "Even if he does need
cue sheets," he adds with a grin.
In the midst of all these administrative responsibilities, Brown always has
time for the students. "Despite the fact
that more than 80 percent of the College's
activities, and thus con-esponding expenditures are focused on research," says
Bart Thielges, "George has always been a
very student-01iented Dean. Not all deans
here or elsewhere are willing to make the
time commitment required to work with
undergraduate students."
"It's very true," says Sarah Hucka,
junior in Forest Recreation Resources,
who tells a story as an example. "Somehow George heard that I play the piano,
and the other day he stopped and talked to
me about it. I don't know how he learned
that, but I appreciate how he takes the
time to get to know us as individuals."
College of Forestry
Oregon State University
154 Peavy Hall
Corvallis, OR 97331-5704
College of
Forestry
•
Recycled
Paper
20
Focus on Forestry
Winter 1999
An active retirement
Brown is looking forward to an
active retirement. "I expect to be busy, but
it'll be my schedule of busy," he says.
Among many other things, he'd like to
travel, go fishing once in a while (with
good friend George Jemison and others),
and work with children. "I've often
thought it would be great fun to teach
little kids to read."
He also intends to volunteer his time
in professional service-perhaps advising
lawmakers on forestry matters, perhaps
helping conduct research in the College of
Forestry. And he's looking forward to
spending more time with his wife, Joan.
The Browns have two grown daughters.
One thing he vows not to do is "get
in the new Dean's hair," he says. "I'll
help, but only if asked."
Most likely there'll be no need. Most
of his colleagues and friends agree:
George Brown has been a good steward to
the College of Forestry. He's protected itst::af
resources, expanded its markets, improved its facilities, built up its soil. He's
leaving this farmstead in good order.
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